WRC FRANCE
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The Rallye de France will be something
special. It is the first time that France’s
world championship rally will be held
on the mainland, after a year’s gap in 2009
and since the Tour de Corse was last held in
2008.
The reason why the Strasbourg community
has been so enthusiastic to host the event,
however, is that this is Sebastien Loeb
heartland, and there was always a chance he
might win his seventh successive Drivers’ title
here. A chance which might not happen in
future ...
That chance has been getting stronger
every rally this season. Despite Loeb’s
disappointing result in Japan it could still
happen here. Regardless, the most excited
people will be at the little town of Haguenau,
the birthplace of Loeb, some 30km north of
Strasbourg where two of the final stages of
the event will be held.
Even aside from the Loeb factor this will be
an action-packed weekend. The Ceremonial
Start (at Palace Kleber, Strasbourg) will be held
the same day that Ford, BMW and Citroen are
expected to launch their revolutionary 2011
World Rally Car models at the Paris Salon and
then revert quickly back Strasbourg.
The Rallye de France will be the second
and final time this year that all the support
activities (Super 2000, Junior, Production
Car and the Pirelli Star Drivers all on their
penultimate outings this year) will run on the
same event, and, as one further attraction, this
event will run in conjunction with a round of
the French championship series.
The French championship factor brings
complications to the event, not least because
this runs to different rules to the world
championship. The national championship
runs on a special event called the Grand
National, run over 18 stages (the same as for
the WRC apart from the final two stages of the
event) but for national championship points
only the first 12 stages will count ...
In the ranks of the WRC-registered teams,
there is another change in the Stobart M-
Sport Ford Rally Team with the second car
now to be driven by Ken Block, the team’s fifth
different driver in five rallies.
Although there are 13 World Rally Cars on
the entry list and there is a disappointing
lack of private World Rally Cars after the
abundance at Rallye Deutschland, with an
entry for the Touring Car driver Yvan Muller in
a Xsara.
There will be in an ex-Petter Solberg
Citroen Xsara run on the event by Norwegian
mechanics. A further eight WRCars, however,
will be running in the Grand National event.
Hometown hero
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